He's been much better the last 2 games. To be fair though, the opposition has been crap but he does seem to be linking up with his teammates better and not stalling attacks. If he works hard and continues to listen to Conte he could turn out to be a real success there.
Romelu Lukaku | Mourinho Part III | Roma watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
One season does not define a player. This is why Conte wanted him at Inter. At Martial's age Lukaku scored 26 league goals for a very average Everton side. Can you imagine Rashford or Martial scoring 26 league goals? He scored 12 goals in the league in his "shit" season. That's not great, but it's not bad either since he started only in 22 games. Can Rashford or Martial score 12 from 22 starts this season? Are they bad?
Not really a fan of Lukaku. He isn't good enough to play for a title-wining team in the PL. But he is good enough to contribute a good amount of goals for a top 4 challenger, because he is solid at punishing smaller teams. And most of the teams in the league are teams against which he has scored many goals. Rashford might have an excellent record against top 6 teams and I think he has a good future, but that might not be enough to get you over the line when competing for a top (4) place in the league. You need a solid goalscorer against average/poor teams. Not replacing Lukaku was a suicidal act of reasoning.
Might be wrong but i think Martial has better mins per Goals + assists than Lukaku, in their ManUtd career.
Also this rewriting of history is just amazing, Lukaku was shat on every week when he was at ManUtd, now he is the goal scoring hero we shouldn't have sold. Just like every decision we made, this was just incomplete. It was right to sell him but wrong not to sign any replacement. It was right to sack Van Gaal but wrong to hire Jose. It was right to sack Jose but wrong to hire Ole.
Might be true but Lukaku does not suffer from injury problems as often as Martial, which is important too. Lukaku has contributed about 50 goals + assists in his 2 seasons here. At the same time Martial has contributed 35 or less. Part of the reason is Mourinho who favoured Lukaku. I'm not saying Lukaku is a better player than Martial. I even defended the view that we could play Martial and Rashford as our main forwards a year ago. I'm just saying that Lukaku wasn't bad (even though he didn't meet the expectations) and was a valuable member of the team who should have been replaced with an experienced goalscorer. Even though I find Martial more talented, I couldn't see him scoring 26 goals for Everton. He woould't be fit enough to start in virtually all games. We let Lukaku get fat and couldn't get the best out of him, which is down to incompetence on the part of the manager/medical staff.
If I remember rightly his average was closer to 3 in 5 than you'd like. He may have actually worked on it under Conte of course, who knows, but yes he was pretty poor in England for the most part.
26 goals for Everton is not his normal level, that's his first and only season where he scored 20+ league goals. He also scored 10 league goals for Everton, 12 for ManUtd. His average league return is 15-16 goals.
Martial played less mins than Lukaku for various reasons, not just fitness.
Lukaku wasn't bad, I agree with that. We should have replaced him. Selling him was right decision as it wasn't working out for him but selling him without replacement was wrong decision.
Think we, and most of the other posters in this thread, agree on that.
I will risk a comparison with Maguire. Think Maguire is the Lukaku's version of a CB: solid and valuable player but not close to being world class. If we struggle in the league our fans will turn against Maguire as well, which wouldn't be smart. Lukaku wasn't guilty we paid so much money for him, similarly Maguire isn't guilty we made him the most expensive CB.
Doubt it. Maguire is step in right direction, ball playing CB. Lukaku was maybe wrong one, limited player leading the line when most of the strong teams have complete player leading the line.
I don't think there's much rewriting going on. The people who were shitting on Lukaku when he was here are the same people who are still shitting on him now that he's banging them in for Inter, or at least they're keeping quiet.
I thought he did fine at United, at least compared with his teammates (which is the only fair comparison, seeing as we're such a dysfunctional team. I'm pretty sure most players would do better at other clubs), and the fact that he's scoring goals for Inter is the least surprising thing in the world. It's not like that's an easy task, either, their lack of goals is what has separated them from the best teams. Going by Wikipedia Icardi was their top scorer last year with 17 goals, the only player to reach double digits. That's in all competitions, not in the league. In the league Icardi scored 11, Lukaku has 9 after 11 rounds and only trailing Immobile.
I guess that's why they bought him.
Exactly, as you say, Maguire is a ball playing centre half, strong on the fall and in the air. Even if he turned out to be "upgradeable" which I doubt, he'll never be looked at like Lukaku, most fans couldn't stand watching such a limited footballer playing at number 9 for United. It had nothing to do with players being "World Class" or not.
He’d have enjoyed playing with James. A proper winger who gets crosses in... perhaps Jose was on to something with Perisic... once again we have the right pieces at the wrong times.
Don't forget the 17 league goals he scored for a rubbish West Brom side in just 20 starts. Hes a very good goalscorer at league level. He proved it in the PL, now he's starting to show it in Italy. The beloved Rashford and Martial, what are their numbers at the same age?
Still stand by what I said. Selling him wasn't the mistake. Failing to replace him was.
Lukaku just didn't do the business against the better sides. That's not good enough for £75m.
Lukaku just didn't do the business against the better sides. That's not good enough for £75m.
Comparing CF numbers with wingers
Most agree that it was a mistake to not replace him. But it should be said that replacing Lukaku isn't easy as there aren't many CFs out there who produce his numbers over 5-6 seasons. If there were, they would be quite expensive too.
You don't need players who produce high numbers, you need players who can compliment the team and add balance to the team. For example, Lukaku scores as many or more than Firmino but Firmino brings lot of balance to the team. Thats how we should build the team.
Many butthurt fans here. Lukaku was our top scorer and the best striker that we had. Selling him and not replacing him with top talent was absolutely moronic decision. He is a far better goalscorer than Rashford and Martial. Not even comparable.
Yeah, people forgot how poor he was when he didn't score at ManUtd.
It's like this game never existed
Liverpool get away with Firmino not producing high numbers because the other forwards do it, also they have a very well implented system. We don't have highly productive forwards or well functioning machine, so replacing Lukaku was always going to be a difficult task and a lot of work had to be done. Instead some people got caught in the hype of youngsters and forgot about reality.
He was like the anti Van Persie. Gave goals away from set pieces, didn't want the ball, poor touch...
I said there is more than one way to replace a player. We don’t have to replace like for like.
Yes, a winger who averages worse than 1 in 4 in the league for his club. That is atrocious. At least Lukaku could score at a good rate.Comparing CF numbers with wingers
He's was shite and wouldn't fit into our new and exciting style of football. Also he only score against lesser teams like Wolves, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Norwich......hmmmmmm
Eh? Considering most of the games they played as subs, it's ridiculous to go by goals per game.
Only in PL.
Lukaku playing as CF all his career averaged 123 mins per G+A, 168 mins per Goal
Martial playing most of his career as winger averaged 138 mins per G+A, 209 mins per goal
Rashford playing most of his career as winger averaged 151 mins per G+A, 236 mins per goal.
Many things changed from last season, they have Conte now who is so much better coach that Spalletti.
People are getting carried away with Lukaku's form too, he started even better for us, scoring in most games till October and then had the barren spell. Anyways he will score goals at Inter as Conte is superb coach who sets his team to dominate and create many chances. That won't change what happened at ManUtd. It didnt work out and he wanted out. Selling him was right decision, not replacing him was awful decision which is something many agree with.
But we did replace Lukaku. We replaced him with Greenwood.
The utterly bizarre thing about Lukaku is that those who wanted rid of him, felt he was not good enough for 'united' and yet he is/was clearly better than the teammates with whom he was vying for position.
He was deemed not up to muster for a 'top team' that existed only in people's imagination while being far better than the team and players that was actually there/here!
I doubt if he was still here, and playing that things would be much different which is why he wanted to leave.
People can blame him all they want, but he was playing in a team, that seems to turn all who wear the shirt these days, to shambling crud, and who are utterly incapable of creating any chances for their forwards. That is on the management.
Ole supporters who hate Lukaku would also do well to remember which player above any other was responsible for him getting the job in the first place.
United would not be in this mess if it wasn't for Lukaku! How about a bit of gratitude
He was deemed not up to muster for a 'top team' that existed only in people's imagination while being far better than the team and players that was actually there/here!
I doubt if he was still here, and playing that things would be much different which is why he wanted to leave.
People can blame him all they want, but he was playing in a team, that seems to turn all who wear the shirt these days, to shambling crud, and who are utterly incapable of creating any chances for their forwards. That is on the management.
Ole supporters who hate Lukaku would also do well to remember which player above any other was responsible for him getting the job in the first place.
United would not be in this mess if it wasn't for Lukaku! How about a bit of gratitude
Lukaku played 5 of his 7 PL seasons for the mighty West Brom and Everton, so his stats are even more impressive.
Lukaku averaged 128 mins per G+A for ManUtd in 2017-18 and 2018-19 season. In those seasons, Martial averaged 133 mins per G+A, Rashford averaged 135 mins per G+A.
In league alone in 2017-18 and 2018-19 season
Lukaku averaged 138 mins per G+A, 178 mins per goal
Rashford averaged 143 mins per G+A, 243 mins per goal
Martial averaged 118 mins per G+A, 168 mins per goal.
It's funny how people state that for £75m Lukaku should have been better, only to then utter in the same breath that a replacement would be more expensive.
The guys a proven goalscorer wherever he's gone, we got what £75m buys you in a striker.
Is he world class? No, does he score goals? Yes.
The guys a proven goalscorer wherever he's gone, we got what £75m buys you in a striker.
Is he world class? No, does he score goals? Yes.
He also wastes counter attacking movements. Is united a counter attacking team yes
Check the newcastle match from last season when we were 0-2 down and then came back to win it. The players literally ignored Lukaku because he was wasting our counters.
I make you right. Also it's amazing how world class players play generally with world class players under a world class manager. It's no coincidence. Like said elsewhere, the argument is he only scored against lesser teams yet bar 5 top teams in the league, the majority are lesser teams. Who have we dropped points to so far this season.....Wolves, Crystal P, Bournemouth, West Ham, Newcastle ....hmmmmmm.
Bottom 10 Serie A teams are much worse than Bottom 10 PL.
He's doing pretty good. 9 goals in 11 games. Currently sitting only after Immobile in the top scorer chart.
Inter are second in the league 1 point behind Juve who are also struggling lately. If they manage to win the league he will be a very good buy for them.
Inter are second in the league 1 point behind Juve who are also struggling lately. If they manage to win the league he will be a very good buy for them.
Scoring against them both. Also played for the bottom 10 teams and still scored. Scored international goals too. Great business, sell your best goalscorer cause he doesn't fit the way you want to play, then don't play that way anyway. Say he didn't want to be here, but keep Pogs who equally didn't want to be here? Sell him cause it's about bringing Mason through, then don't play him or only bring him on for 5 mins. There's a whole new level of bullshit in this football club.
This is where im out of this thread
Looking from 'we want to win the league and UCL' perspective, sure, a player as limited as him leading the line is not what a team of champions have. But our perspective is actually 'we want to reach top 4' and selling by far our best goalscorer hasn't been the right move.
Bye bye. Not sure why people want to minimise his ability to score goals. People make it sound likes it's the easiest thing to do even playing in a good team.